Sonny Kalimba and his song

As part of our television series on world music and dance, The Languages of Sound and Music, we recorded one episode featuring the music and dance of West Africa, here meaning Nigeria and Ghana.  One of the songs from that episode has always enchanted me.  It’s sung by someone from Ghana whose stage name is Sonny Kalimba, and the song is called…Oh, Kalimba!

I well remember when we recorded this music.  We were working in the studios of CCTV (Contra Costa Television) in Martinez, CA., which were donated to us free of charge by the County of Contra Costa, with the support of AC5 (Arts and Culture Commission of Contra Costa County). 

We shot this episode, as well as the others, on a Sunday because that way, there were no worries about us disturbing county workers, since the studio is located in a government building used by several county departments.

Our crew showed up on time at 9:30am and we began preparing the set.  Yours truly (Eve Ma)  was Producer/Director, Richard R. Lee of Sidewalks Entertainment was Studio Director, and we had six other crew—three cameras, a sound tech, etc..

Our dancers and musicians were supposed to come at noon, and they did, except that at the last moment, one of the planned drummers didn’t show.  This was a shame, but we still had enough to film the episode.

Most of the show focused on Nigeria since the dancers and the lead drummer (actually one of only three drummers under the circumstances) was from Nigeria.  His name, in case you happen to know him, is Friday Jumbo.  He's a veteran of seven CDs on which he sings and plays the drums, and is very talented.

Since the one drummer didn’t appear, to make up for it, Friday brought two other musicians:  Sonny Kalimba (stage name), a musician/singer from Ghana, and his friend, another musician from Ghana.  Having them there made it perfectly logical to include some of their music, so a show that I intended to be only about Nigerian music and dance became a show about West African music and dance.

Do you know where Ghana is?  (Or for that matter, do you know where Nigeria is?)  Both countries are in West Africa – no surprise here – and they are very close to each other.  Here's a LINK to a map, in case you want one.

The straight Ghanaian part of the show consisted of Sonny Kalimba singing “Oh, Kalimba!” with Sonny's friend (don't have his name here in Spain) along with Friday Jumbo accompanying him on the drums.  Dancer James Esoimeme's son also played the shekere, but not with a whole lot of enthusiasm and he definitely took a back seat to the others.

The kalimba is a musical instrument.  It’s steel keys inserted into a half gourd.  The music is lovely…sweet, but because of the way it’s played, sounding more like broken chords instead of melodical.   The song is very upbeat, has an infectious rhythm and Sonny Kalimba is a great singer, plus he has good presence.  He seems a happy guy, and the song is a happy song. 

We shot the whole thing in one take.  Check it out—which you can do by signing up for our newsletter “Straight from the Horses’ Mouth."  We'll be providing a different free music download each month, and the music for June is Sonny Kalimba's Oh, Kalimba!

OUR NEXT POST will be about our production of a double CD of flamenco cante (singing) by Antonio de la Malena, and other recent activities.